Ubisoft released the promised Rainbow Six 3 : Raven Shield 1.5 patch yesterday, but they failed to mention their new copy protection scheme.

It turns out that Ubisoft implented code into the RVS 1.5 patch which checks PCs for ANY clone or virtual drive programs and then fails to launch the game if such devices or programs are found. What this has in turn done is disabled thousands of consumers who use programs like Daemon Tools, CloneCD or Alcohol 120% from playing their Ubisoft games even if they have their own physical cds in an actual drive.

After contacting a Technical Support Representative of Ubisoft, I was told that they feel that this is the wrong way to go about anti-piracy measures but they have no say in the matter. They did point out that Ubisoft management claims that they're covered under their EULA but the EULA does not state once that you are not allowed to have virtual drives on your system during play. It only says that you are not allowed to make back up copies.

Irregardless of what the virtual drives or virtual clone programs on your system are for, you will not be able to play Raven Shield with patch 1.5 unless you remove them completely off your system. Again, you can't even play when you have the retail cds in a drive unless those programs / virtual drives are removed. This is a violation of consumer rights - those programs are used for perfectly legal reasons especially at LAN cafes to avoid disc loss.